fatal

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   having extremely unfortunate or dire consequences

   One fatal mistake caused their plan to fail.

2. 2
   adj

   Proceeding from, or appointed by, fate or destiny.

   She mixed furniture with the same fatal profligacy as she mixed drinks, and this outrageous contact between things which were intended by Nature to be kept poles apart gave her an inexpressible thrill.

3. 3
   adj

   Foreboding death or great disaster.

   Such a scandal as the prosecution of a brother for forgery—with a verdict of guilty—is a most truly horrible, deplorable, fatal thing. It takes the respectability out of a family perhaps at a critical moment, when the family is just assuming the robes of respectability: […] it is a black spot which all the soaps ever advertised could never wash off.

4. 4
   adj

   Causing death or destruction.

   a fatal wound; a fatal disease; that fatal day; a fatal mistake

5. 5
   adj

   Causing a sudden end to the running of a program.

   a fatal error; a fatal exception

6. 6
   noun

   A fatality; an event that leads to death.

   For this same period there have been four fatals and 44 nonfatals in gassy mines.

7. 7
   adj

   controlled or decreed by fate

8. 8
   adj

   having momentous consequences

Etymology

From Middle French fatal, from Latin fātālis (“fatal”).